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Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative

The Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative (SBC) is a network of organizations working together to spur the introduction and use of biomaterials that are sustainable from cradle to cradle.

Promote Sustainable Plastics

Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program

http://www.biobased.oce.usda.gov

In 2002 Congress instituted a law that mandated the development of a biobased preferred procurement program for Federal Agencies. The law requires Federal Agencies, defined by the USDA as "Any executive agency or independent establishment in the legislative or judicial branch of the Government (except the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Architect of the Capitol, and any activities under the Architect's direction)", to purchase biobased products, including plastics, as opposed to fossil energy based products, where "the Federal agency purchases $10,000 or more worth of one of these items during the course of a fiscal year, or where the quantity of such items or of functionally equivalent items purchased during the preceding fiscal year was $10,000 or more. The $10,000 threshold applies to Federal agencies as a whole rather than to agency subgroups such as regional offices or subagencies of a larger Federal department or agency".

This law was instituted because increased demand for biobased products is believed to decrease dependency on foreign oil, reduce negative environmental impacts and promote economic development through new investment, job formation in rural areas (agricultural processing and manufacturing) and new markets for farm commodities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture designates which items will be part of the procurement program.

The selection process, briefly, involves the following procedure:

  1. USDA gathers data and vendors volunteer information on products.
  2. USDA analyzes this information and proposes guidelines for each generic grouping of biobased products considered. These guidelines include such information as the minimum biobased content required in a product to qualify for the program.
  3. The guidelines are made public and comments are accepted for a 90 day period.
  4. The guidelines are revised and made official.

The procurement program is a great boost for biobased plastics, but unfortunately it has several limitations in terms of spurring truly sustainable bioplastics. The limitations include: